SA Clubs recall players from Bafana!

[Posted 03 Jan 2012][By Brighton Mupangavanhu]

In a very disturbing development, three South Africa's ABSA Premiership clubs have pulled out their players from the senior national soccer team ahead of the team's trip to Equatorial Guinea, before returning home to face Ghana and Zambia in planned friendlies.

Sundowns have chipped in to remove from the Bafana squad Wayne Sandilands, Katlego Mphela, Teko Modise and Themba Zwane, while Arrows have recalled Thanduyise Khuboni.

All the players pulled out are key players for the senior national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, and their absence will affect the rythym of the team's prerparations for the 2031 Africa Cup of Nations to be hosted in South Africa and the World Cup qualifiers due to start in June.

The effect of the clubs' shocking decisions is that Safa have had to downgrade the status of the Ghana and Zambia matches from full internationals to practise friendly matches.

"The first match against Equatorial Guinea is an official match.

"In so far as Zambia and Ghana games are concerned we have been in contact with our counter parts in both countries and the status of those matches is that they will not be official matches but rather practice matches," Safa vice-president Chief Mwelo Nonkonyana revealed.

"Zambia and Ghana understand our situation which is why they have agreed for these matches to be practice matches which are not official games. Our CEO Dr. Robin Petersen has been in contact with both associations in that regard," Nonkonyana added.

It is very suprising why this discord between Safa and the PSL does not appear to get resolved.

The nation has suffered a major blow in its attempt to prepare Bafana Bafana, more importantly for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers due to commence in June this year. Why the PSL does not seem to want to pull in the same direction with SAFA in achieving national objectives is difficult to understand.

But is it the PSL to blame alone or at all, or it is poor organisation on the part of Safa? That is a mystery that Beezsports will seek to uncover in the coming weeks.

There is more than meets the eye in this whole saga, and without any shred of doubt, there are communication problems between Safa and the PSL, something which need to be worked out as a matter of urgency.

In the absence of Sandilands and Josephs, coach Pitso Mosimane has called Under 23 goalkeeper Brilliant Kuzwayo from First Division, while Darren Keet is expected to arrive soon from Belgium.